‘Extremely Rare’ Snowy Owl Sighting Transfixes a California Suburb

The forbidding frozen wilderness of the excessive Arctic tundra is the pure house of the snowy owl, a terrific predator completely tailored to searching its major meals supply, lemmings.

However someday over the previous couple of weeks, one snowy owl particularly made a shock look in noticeably much less harsh terrain — the shingled roofs and white chimneys of suburban Southern California.

What introduced the owl to town of Cypress, in Orange County, about 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles, stays a thriller and the topic of impassioned debate among the many scores of chicken watchers and curious neighbors who’ve come out to marvel on the chicken.

Regardless of the owl’s journey could have been, the sight of such an uncommon raptor set amongst streets lined with palm bushes has been “wonderful,” mentioned Nancy Caruso, a neighbor who has seen the owl.

“It’s like seeing Santa Claus on a seaside,” mentioned Ms. Caruso, a marine biologist. “Like that misplaced, however cool.”

Neighbors have come to note a sample with the chicken, which appears to take off round 5 p.m. earlier than reappearing someday later, like a commuter, to its suburban roost.

“I’ve been hanging out with him a few occasions a day, and I’m not a chicken man in any manner, form or type,” mentioned Joshua Lindsay, a common contractor who lives close by.

He mentioned the “completely ginormous” owl had been “divebombed by hawks and robins” and “would look over at them, like, ‘Actually? What the hell are you going to do?’”

Lori Arent, the assistant director of the Raptor Heart on the Faculty of Veterinary Medication on the College of Minnesota, mentioned that snowy owls are recognized emigrate from northern Canada to the Midwestern and northeastern United States in the course of the winter. Some have been noticed as far south as Texas, she mentioned. (In January 2021, one visited Central Park, making a frenzy amongst city birders.)

Nevertheless it was “extraordinarily uncommon” to seek out one as far south and west as Southern California, Ms. Arent mentioned.

She mentioned it was potential that the owl could have merely flown 1000’s of miles to Orange County. Or it might have “hitched a experience” on a ship, she mentioned, possibly from someplace alongside the Canadian coast, just like the port of Vancouver, or Alaska. Others have speculated that the chicken could have been saved as an unique pet and escaped.

“It will likely be fascinating to see how lengthy this chicken stays,” Ms. Arent mentioned. “The query will likely be: Will this chicken be capable of discover sufficient meals to eat?”

She mentioned snowy owls that fly south usually desire flat, open terrain similar to airports the place they’ll extra simply hunt small prey. That might make Cypress an interesting vacation spot: The Joint Forces Coaching Base, Los Alamitos, a Nationwide Guard facility with an airfield, is just a few miles away because the owl flies.

When the owl returns, pleasure fills the neighborhood.

“Probably the most thrilling factor for me is that the general public is reacting so positively,” mentioned Victor Leipzig, who teaches birding at Saddleback Faculty in Mission Viejo, Calif., and is a previous president of the native chapter of the Audubon Society.

“I used to be there on Tuesday of this week, and there have been individuals from the native neighborhood who had been simply thrilled and individuals who had pushed from 100 miles away to see the chicken,” he mentioned.

Scott Thomas, the raptor analysis chairman on the native Audubon chapter, mentioned the owl had not too long ago been noticed coughing up a pellet of bones and fur, an indication that it had discovered a small animal to eat.

However there are risks within the space, similar to automobiles, rodenticide and airplanes touchdown on the army base. Sooner or later, he mentioned, the preferred raptor in Cypress could merely transfer on, headed north to the Arctic.

“The factor I can say for certain is persons are going to proceed to look at it — rather a lot,” Mr. Thomas mentioned. “And in the future it’ll disappear, simply fly off.”